TORONTO -- Sue Lalonde, 41, was six months pregnant when she decided it was time to get her driver's licence. "I was terrified," said Lalonde, who married a trucker three years ago.

The retirement-home support worker signed up for driving lessons, jittery until the day of her dreaded first road test, known as the G2.

Failing the written test -- called the G1 -- only compounded her apprehension of driving.

"It's different when you're 16," the Belleville native said. "You really don't have any fear when you're 16 of that kind of thing."

Lalonde is the face of a new and growing class of novice drivers since Ontario rolled out graduated licensing, a stricter system of driver certification, a decade ago.

To get fully licensed, drivers have to pass one written and two road tests. Before the first road examination, applicants must avoid highways, maintain a zero blood alcohol level and can't drive from midnight to 5 a.m. The entire process takes at least 20 months to complete, but can last five years depending on when drivers schedule their tests.

The province has been a trailblazer in shifting the way Canada has licensed its drivers. In recent years, other provinces, including Manitoba, Alberta and B.C., have implemented similar licensing measures.

There are some signs the system is working, according to the latest findings available in the 2001 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report. That year, there were 845 deaths on Ontario roads -- the lowest since 1950 -- compared to 999 in 1994.

That drop occurred just as the province's overall population increased by about a million.

"Ontario's roads are the safest in both Canada and all of North America," the report concluded. "This is a significant improvement since 1995, when Ontario ranked second in Canada and sixth in North America."

Experts agree graduated licensing has had an unparalleled impact on the streets.

"It's the biggest improvement to road safety since the invention of the seat-belt," said Peter Christianson, president of Young Drivers of Canada.

CRASH NUMBERS

The total number of collisions in Ontario from 1989 to 2001:

1989: 247,038

1990: 220,188

1991: 213,669

1992: 224,249

1993: 228,834

1994: 226,996

1995: 219,085

1996: 215,024

1997: 221,500

1998: 213,366

1999: 221,962

2000: 240,630

2001: 234,004